A while ago when the .eu level domains were made available to the public, I tried to register www.benstokes.eu and www.stokes.eu. My application for www.stokes.eu was unsuccessful, which annoyed me as that was the one I really wanted. It annoys me more, that many months later www.stokes.eu is deserted and still gives a DNS error. Why register it if you're not going to use it??!

The registration process for .eu domains was a bit of a joke during the 'landrush' period, you basically had to apply and pay for a domain (along with loads of other people applying for the same names), and then your registrar applies on your behalf. On the day they were made available, the registrars could only apply for one domain every 10 seconds, to make it fair to everyone. I don't think it's very fair though that I don't get my money back for my failed application. Instead I get a credit for an alternative .eu domain, but the trouble is, all the best ones are gone already.

So I thought I'd jump on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and I started looked for words ending in eu (thinking along the lines of del.icio.us), If I was French I would have loads of words to choose from but the English dictionary was drawing blanks. On a tangent I wondered if www.stok.es was available, I checked and it was! I registered it immediately, but on reflection now I'm wondering if my new domain name is really a bit sh.it, exactly like Rob Manuel says ...

Anyone want a .eu domain? I've got one going spare ...

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